Displaced & sans potable water
Mirzapur (Hisar), July 15
Thanks to the callous attitude of the district administration, a number of Dalit families in this village are putting up in tents outside the village in a pitiable condition and are forced to drink accumulated rainwater.

One dies in police custody
Rewari, July 15
Mr Chhaju Ram (42), who had been arrested from Sadhu Shah Nagar here yesterday for providing arms and protection to gangsters, died in police custody here last evening.

Stamp duty cut for women
Chandigarh, July 15
The Haryana Cabinet today took a slew of important decisions, including reducing the stamp duty for women to enable them to become the owners of property.

SP to get notice on illegal construction
in library
Karnal, July 15
The Municipal Council of Karnal has decided to serve a notice on Karnal Superintendent of Police Bharti Arora for illegal construction work (extension part) going on at Pash Library on the premises of the police lines, as she is the chairman of the trust that runs the library.

Retd defence officers peeved over eligibility criteria
Chandigarh, July 15
Retired defence officers have expressed unhappiness over the "unreasonable" eligibility criteria laid down by the Haryana Government for appointment to the posts of secretary, zila sainik boards, as it restricts a large number from applying for the same.

Arvind Kharinta is MC chief
Hisar, July 15
Mr Arvind Kharinta was elected the president of the local Municipal Council in a tough contest here today. All 31 councillors, apart from local MP Jai Prakash and local MLA Savitri Devi Jindal, cast their votes in the election.

Work to re-divert river water stopped
Belgah (Yamunanagar), July 15
The work effort of raising a bundh to re-divert the Yamuna waters from a creek into the main river to save 18 villages of Chhachhrouli block from flooding has to be stopped after the water level in the river started rising this evening.

Couple dies in roof collapse
Karsindhu (Panipat), July 15
A young couple died at Karsindhu village in the district when the roof of the room in which they were sleeping collapsed early this morning. Their two-year-old son received injuries in his leg.

2 die as
tractor trailor overturns
Yamunanagar, July 14
Two persons were killed and three injured when a tractor trailer overturned on the Jagadhri – Paonta Sahib National Highway on Wednesday.

135 sites for micro-hydel units
Chandigarh, July 15
The Punjab Energy Development Agency had identified 135 sites on various canals in the state for setting up micro-hydel projects.

Three of family done
to death
Jind, July 15
Three members of a family were killed with sharpedged weapons at Budain village under Uchana police station in this district last night.

3 jail warders suspended
Kurukshetra, July 15
Three district jail warders have been suspended by the district jail administration, due to dereliction of duty.

Farmer dies after inhaling pesticide
Karnal, July 15
A 20-year-old farmer, Sunil, died after allegedly inhaling pesticide while spraying it in his fields at Kamalpur village here on Friday. He was admitted to a local private hospital after he fell unconscious where he later died.

Mirzapur (Hisar), July 15
Thanks to the callous attitude of the district administration, a number of Dalit families in this village are putting up in tents outside the village in a pitiable condition and are forced to drink accumulated rainwater.

Their houses damaged or filled with rainwater, they have no place to go and survival is getting tougher for them with each passing day. Left with scanty belongings and not even enough clothes for their children, they have lost all faith in the system.

While their fellow villagers helped in shifting their saved household goods to their present location, no administrative official or legislator has even bothered to hear their tale of woes, let alone the question of extending a helping hand.

“Garib maansa ki kaun sune hai ji…(Who cares for the poor?)” a woman responded on being asked whether they had received any help from the government. She added that her mother was undergoing treatment at a hospital, but they had hardly any money left for it.

With no source of potable water approachable, they are sometimes forced to drink accumulated rainwater, which is a big health risk.

The condition is no better inside the village, with local residents complaining that nearly all sources of drinking water are contaminated. Moreover, thousands of acres of agricultural land and internal roads are still submerged in water.

Apparently, the threat of an epidemic looms large. Apart from it, villagers maintain that 70 to 80 per cent of standing crops in the fields have been destroyed.

Residents of Shikarpur and Raipur villages also have a similar story to tell. With a number of houses having collapsed and a considerable chunk of crops, including cotton, paddy and vegetables having been destroyed, the villagers can only hope that it does not rain anymore.

The residents of rain-affected villages are facing multifarious problems these days. For instance, since the cremation grounds of both villages are also submerged in water, the villagers are facing a great difficulty in cremating their dead.

Hisar, July 15
As many as 50 per cent villages in Bhiwani, Rewari, Mahendragarh, Gurgaon and Faridabad districts of the state have higher fluoride content in drinking water than the permissible limits. Villagers are more prone to fluorosis as they consume groundwater from shallow sources, which have high fluoride content.

This was stated by Dr Kuldip Singh Dhindsa, Professor of Chemistry, Haryana Agricultural University, here today. Referring to WHO standards, Prof Dhindsa said in a country like India, fluoride content should be 1 ppm (parts per million). However, in various parts of the state it had been found to be in the range of 0.5 to 29 ppm.

Rewari, July 15
Mr Chhaju Ram (42), who had been arrested from Sadhu Shah Nagar here yesterday for providing arms and protection to gangsters, died in police custody here last evening.

Following an inquest held by Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Sujan Singh Yadav under Section 176 of the Cr.PC, postmortem examination was conducted in the civil hospital here this morning by a board of doctors comprising Dr Ashok Saini, Dr J.K. Saini and Dr P.D Mehra who reportedly opined that the substantial cause of death would be ascertained after examining the viscera report.

Meanwhile Chhaju Ram’s viscera has been dispatched to the Forensic state Laboratory at Madhuban (Karnal) for chemical examination.

When relatives of the deceased expressed “dissatisfaction” over the post mortem examination conducted in the civil hospital here, the SDM, at their written request, allowed them to take the body (in police custody) to PGIMS, Rohtak for a second postmortem examination. Consequently the body was taken to PGIMS, Rohtak at noon today.

Mr Satya Pal Sangwan, a former legislator of Charkhi Dadri, Mr Karan Singh, a brother of the deceased, and a host of others, who were present in the civil hospital here this morning,
blamed the Rewari police, alleging that Chhaju Ram had died due to police torture.

Chhaju Ram, who was a permanent resident of Charkhi Dadri, had been residing in Sadhu Shah Nagar here for the past several years.

Meanwhile Dr C.S. Rao, SP, has said that they had arrested Chhaju Ram yesterday after the gang leader Vinod Sharma, who had earlier been arrested after an encounter near Berli Kalan village last morning, had revealed during interrogation that it was Chhaju Ram who supplied them arms and with whom he had also stayed at his house here for several weeks four months ago.

Dr Rao added when they took him to the civil hospital last evening and when they started interrogating him in the presence of the earlier hospitalised Vinod Sharma as well as the medical officer of the hospital, he (Chhaju Ram) abruptly collapsed and died at 5.45 pm yesterday. Dr C.S. Rao went on to say that he suffered from cardiac arrest purported to have been caused by the disclosures made by gang leader Vinod Sharma.

Chandigarh, July 15
The Haryana Cabinet today took a slew of important decisions, including reducing the stamp duty for women to enable them to become the owners of property.

The Cabinet meeting, presided over by the Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, decided to reduce by 2 per cent the stamp duty on conveyance on sale in the case of purchase of immovable property by a woman as a sole owner and also where all joint holders are women. Also, the stamp duty would be reduced by 1 per cent in the case of purchase of immovable property where a woman is a joint holder with a man.

The Cabinet approved a proposal of the Education Department to revert the control of primary schools to the department from zila parishads and municipalities.

Regarding the 6,500 primary school teachers recruited by zila parishads last year, it was decided to absorb them in the Education Department subject to conditions to be framed by the department separately.

It was decided at a Cabinet Meeting last month to revise the prescribed qualifications for teachers from JBT and plus two to JBT and graduation. However, it was decided today that individuals who had already the done JBT and had only the plus two qualification, should be considered eligible for employment as primary school teachers for a period of two years, that is till the new JBT passouts who were graduates became eligible. Individuals under the plus two category would be required to comply with the condition of doing graduation within a period of five years.

It was also decided that for the recruitment of primary school teachers, 50 per cent “vertical” reservation should be kept for persons who had passed their 10th and 12th classes from a rural school in Haryana. The Cabinet also decided to amend the constitution and functions of its state-level steering committee, IT PRISM (P for planning, R for re-engineering, I for implementation, S for steering and M for monitoring), following guidelines issued by the central Government under the National e-Governance Programme.

The Chief Secretary would remain the chairman of the reconstituted committee. The members would be the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, the Secretaries of Finance, Planning, Administrative Reforms, Electronics and IT, the Director-General, National Informatics Centre, or his nominee, and the Managing Director, HARTRON. The Special Secretary or the Joint Secretary, Electronics and Information Technology, would be the member secretary or convener. Three experts of IT would be nominated by the state government to the committee. Any other Secretary or head of department, to whom a specific agenda would apply, would be the special invitee.

The functions of the committee approved by the Cabinet included overseeing computerisation and application of information technology in the state covering the issues of finalisation of business models, outsourcing and related activities of IT projects funded by the state or the Central Government. The committee would set the priorities of sectors to be taken up for computerisation and review the progress of the implementation of the IT Action Plan of various departments, boards and corporations of the government.

The committee would approve the budget and sanction posts and expenditure for IT projects. It would devise ways and means for the promotion of IT education in the state. It would also act as a high-level committee for giving policy directions and oversee the state e-governance programme.

The Cabinet approved a proposal of the Higher Education Department to amend the Haryana Education (College Cadre) Group-A Service Rules, 1986, and the Haryana Education (College Cadre) Group-A Service (Amendment) Rules, 2002.

These amendments were necessary to change the service conditions and qualifications for appointment to posts of principal in government colleges. Twenty five per cent of the posts of principal in government colleges and Deputy Director, Colleges, are to be filled by direct recruitment and 75 per cent by promotion. Also, the qualification of PhD would be deleted for the posts to be filled by promotion. Also, the minimum age for the direct recruitment of principals of government colleges would be raised from 25 years to 36 years and the condition relating to the upper age limit of 45 years would not be applicable to the vacancies which arose after November 8, 2002.

The Cabinet also decided to amend Rule 4-A of the Punjab Government National Emergency (Concession) Rules, 1965, to give the benefit of military service towards increment and seniority on the first regular appointment or on subsequent regular appointments under the government. However, the benefit would be admissible only once.

The Cabinet also decided to sell land measuring 20 kanals 2 marlas of Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited to Jindal Stainless Steels Limited, Hisar. The land would be sold at a rate of Rs 9 lakh per acre. This land is “gair mumkin” and no passage is available to it as it is bound on two sides by the land of Jindal Stainless Steels. The Cabinet decided to double the share capital of the Haryana Roadways Engineering Corporation (HREC) from Rs 2 crore to Rs 4 crore. The step will enable the HREC to modernise its workshop and fabricate bus bodies of better quality.

Karnal, July 15
The Municipal Council of Karnal has decided to serve a notice on Karnal Superintendent of Police Bharti Arora for illegal construction work (extension part) going on at Pash Library on the premises of the police lines, as she is the chairman of the trust that runs the library.

Stating this to The Tribune, Mr Balwinder Singh Kalra, president of the MC, said that the trust had not got the building design of the library passed from the MC before starting the construction work. “We will not allow any unauthorised construction within the municipal limits of the town,” he said.

The president said that he had asked Mr Hans Raj, Inspector (Buildings), to go to the spot and stop the construction work going on at the library site. The Inspector had also been asked to send a notice on the name of chairman of the trust to initiate legal action as per the Municipal Act/Building bylaws, said Mr Kalra.

Investigation by The Tribune showed that earlier also the main building of the library was constructed without getting the building design passed from the MC. Presently, the construction work was going on as an extension of the main building also without getting the building design passed from the MC.

When contacted, Mr Om Prakash, Deputy Superintendent of Police (City), who is also Secretary of the trust, said that he was not aware whether the building design had been got passed from the MC. “I will definitely look into the matter and abide by the Municipal Act/Building bylaws,” he said.

The DSP further said that he would get the construction work stopped immediately and ask the librarian to get prepared a building design from an authorised/ qualified architect and get it approved from the MC authorities as per the existing norms.

Meanwhile, the construction work is still going on at the library site at a rapid pace. Mr Rajiv Ranjan, a Head Constable, who has been deputed as librarian in the Pash library, said he had not yet received any notice. However, the matter has been brought to the notice of senior officials for seeking advice.

Chandigarh, July 15
Retired defence officers have expressed unhappiness over the "unreasonable" eligibility criteria laid down by the Haryana Government for appointment to the posts of secretary, zila sainik boards, as it restricts a large number from applying for the same.

The criteria as notified by the state government stipulated that aspirants should have retired in the rank of Major / Lieutenant-Colonel / Colonel.They should be in receipt of pension and should not be below the age of 50 years. The selection process is scheduled to begin shortly.

An officer is entitled to a grant of pension after he completes 20 years of service. The average age at which officers receive their commission is 22-23 years and those who leave the service on attaining pensionable age are around 42 years. The stipulated retirement age is 54 years for Lieutenant- Colonels.

"This implies that officers who have sought an early release from the service for whatever reason, be it domestic, medical or otherwise, cannot apply for the aforementioned posts and have to wait for several years to become eligible," a retired officer affected by the policy remarked while speaking to The Tribune.

Several representations have been sent by affected ex-servicemen to the Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, as well as state government officials concerned in this regard.

"Jobs such as these are meant for rehabilitation, more so in cases where officers are have to leave prematurely due to circumstances not entirely under their control," the officer said. "It is the duty of the state government to provide opportunities to ex-servicemen, but it itself is putting restrictions. Questioning the rationale of imposing age restrictions, another officer said it appeared that the government wanted to limit the number of aspirants, perhaps to favour a few. "The vacancies should be open to all who have attained the minimum rank required for the posts, regardless of their age," he added.

Sirsa, July 15
Resentment prevailed among staff members of University College (UC) who have not been paid salary for this month. Both teaching and non-teaching staff urged the state government to instruct Chaudhary Devi Lal University (CDLU) for the release of the salary.

According to sources, communication gap between the higher education department and CDLU caused the non-disbursement. Government National PG College got affiliated to the CDLU two months ago and given the status of University College.

The sources said after the transfer of the college, including its assets and around 200 employees with the CDLU, the state authorities and the university did not pay any heed to adopt the college staff.

Though name of the college had been struck off by the education department but the university was not communicated officially regarding the release of salary, said a senior college official.

Lamenting the CDLU authorities, teachers of the UC had urged the government to intervene. With half of the month had been through, there was no indication whether the salaries would be released, rued the teachers.

Meanwhile, sources in the CDLU said institution might take some time to initiate the process. With admission process on, the staff-starved university was facing problems to carry on other administrative works, they added.

The Principal of the UC had written to the Registrar, Mr Pankaj Yadav, who has the dual charge of the ADC also on the issue and urged the university to release the salary, the sources added.

Hisar, July 15
Mr Arvind Kharinta was elected the president of the local Municipal Council in a tough contest here today. All 31 councillors, apart from local MP Jai Prakash and local MLA Savitri Devi Jindal, cast their votes in the election.

Of the 33 votes polled, 21 went in favour of Mr Kharinta, while 12 were bagged by his rival candidate Bihari Lal Rara.

This election is being seen as a major setback for the Congress MP from Kurukshetra and local MLA Savitri Devi’s son, Mr Naveen Jindal, who was supporting the candidature of Mr Rara. The local MP was also said to be backing Mr Rara.

Belgah (Yamunanagar), July 15
The work effort of raising a bundh to re-divert the Yamuna waters from a creek into the main river to save 18 villages of Chhachhrouli block from flooding has to be stopped after the water level in the river started rising this evening.

Several villages of the block were flooded early this month. The fear of floods again looms large on the villages. The river had formed a new creek due to “illegal mining” in the riverbed. The work on the bundh would start again once the water level in the river reduces, according to an official in the Irrigation Department.

Sources said raising of the bundh was a risky job as any increase in the river water could defeat its purpose. It was also not known how long it would take to complete the work.

Mr R.K Garg, Chief Engineer, of the Haryana Irrigation Department, said an effort was being made to re-divert the water into the main river. He confirmed that the work of raising the bundh had been stopped after the water level started rising. When asked about the effectiveness of the bundh, he said the department was making efforts and if stones could be embedded in the bundh it would cause silting and the bundh would serve its purpose.

Karsindhu (Panipat), July 15
A young couple died at Karsindhu village in the district when the roof of the room in which they were sleeping collapsed early this morning. Their two-year-old son received injuries in his leg.

According to information, Sandeep (25), his wife Reena (22) and their son Lakhshay were sleeping on the roof of their house situated in the fields near Karsindhu railway station last night.

However, they went inside their room on the first floor when it started raining at around 12.30 am. Sandeep’s father, Chander Singh, was sleeping in the room on the ground floor.

Chander Singh, a resident of Nara village, 5 km from Karsindhu village, said that he heard a big noise at around 3 am but he did not realise that the roof of the first floor had caved in as he thought that the noise was due to thunderstorm.

He said that he came to know about the incident at 5 a.m. when he went ot the first floor. Later, he along with other persons extricated the bodies of Sandeep and Reena from the debris. Lakhshay was found alive under the debris, but he was injured.

The bodies were taken to Bhim Sen Sachar Hospital for a post-mortem examination. Later their bodies were handed over to the family members for cremation.

Yamunanagar, July 14
Two persons were killed and three injured when a tractor trailer overturned on the Jagadhri – Paonta Sahib National Highway on Wednesday. In another accident, 12 persons were injured when an overloaded bus overturned near Samta Yog Ashram, Jagadhri, yesterday. The condition of five of the injured was said to be serious.

Kuldeep Singh (18) and Binder Singh (22) were killed when the tractor – trailer on which they were bringing mangoes from Himachal Pradesh over- turned. Police sources said the tractor overturned as the driver tried to save it from collding with a truck coming from the opposite direction. The deceased were residents of Ghoropipli village here.

A private bus overturned and 12 persons were injured when the front tyre of the bus burst. At the time of the accident there were about 60 passengers in the vehicle. The injured have been admitted to different hospitals. The bus driver fled from the spot.

Chandigarh, July 15
The Punjab Energy Development Agency (PEDA) had identified 135 sites on various canals in the state for setting up micro-hydel projects.

Private entrepreneurs have been allowed to set up projects on the canals. The irrigation wing will not levy any charges on such entrepreneurs.

The Minister for Science and Technology, Mr Rakesh Pandey, said eight micro-hydel projects were already running in the state and more were in the pipeline. Setting up such projects would be beneficial for small entrepreneurs facing a power shortage, he added.
— TNS

Jind, July 15
Three members of a family were killed with sharpedged weapons at Budain village under Uchana police station in this district last night.

According to reports received here, the dead were identified as Santosh (40), her son Anil (16) and daughter Babli (14). Santosh and Anil reportedly died on the spot, while Babli succumbed to her injuries on the way to hospital.

The report said Randhir, alias Dhira, a relative of Santosh, allegedly attacked them with sharpedged weapons while they were sleeping in their house. Jasmer (10), another son of Santosh, was injured in the attack. His condition was stated to be serious. He has been referred to Medical College Hospital at Rohtak for treatment.
— OC

Kurukshetra, July 15
Three district jail warders have been suspended by the district jail administration, due to dereliction of duty.

Confirming this here yesterday the district Jail Superintendent, Mr Harish Ranga, said the warders’ duty was to keep a watch on respective cells but on Monday night, during surprise checking the district jail Deputy Superintendent, Mr Rattan Singh, found three warders asleep. They were Mr Rakesh Kumar, Mr Rajeev Saini and Mr Gulshan Kumar.

Karnal, July 15
A 20-year-old farmer, Sunil, died after allegedly inhaling pesticide while spraying it in his fields at Kamalpur village here on Friday. He was admitted to a local private hospital after he fell unconscious where he later died.

The police has sent the body for the post-mortem examination at the local Civil Hospital. Meanwhile, inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC has been initiated.
— TNS